Financial Times (December 20)
“Fear and rage must not be used as an excuse to destroy America’s core institutions.” Britain and other western democracies are also at risk of falling into the hands of despots. “The core institutions of democracy do not protect themselves. They are protected by people who understand and cherish the values they embody. Politics must respond to the fear and rage that brought Mr Trump to power. But it must not surrender to them. They must not be an excuse to destroy the republic.”
Tags: Core institutions, Democracies, Despots, Fear, People, Politics, Rage, Trump, UK, Values
Washington Post (August 26)
“To appreciate what’s at stake for the world in this year’s U.S. presidential election, it’s useful to visit a place such as Australia that has been one of our most faithful allies.” Laid back Australians are “mortified at what’s happening in American politics.” Only 11% support Trump (versus 77% for Clinton) and, “most amazing, in a country that has backed every U.S. military action for a century, 59 percent of Australians say their country shouldn’t join in U.S. military action if Trump is elected.”
The Guardian (July 29)
“It is a race to take charge of the world’s largest city—a metropolis with a population more than half the size of the United Kingdom and with a GDP greater than all but 10 countries.” But the Tokyo Governor’s race is probing new lows with “mud slinging and misogyny,” as well as “events that some say highlights the worst of Japan’s male-dominated politics.”
Tags: GDP, Governor, Japan, Male dominated, Metropolis, Mud slinging, Politics, Population, Tokyo, UK
The Economist (June 18)
“A vote to quit the European Union on June 23rd…would do grave and lasting harm to the politics and economy of Britain. The loss of one of the EU’s biggest members would gouge a deep wound in the rest of Europe. And… it would mark a defeat for the liberal order that has underpinned the West’s prosperity.”
Tags: Britain, Defeat, Economy, EU, Liberal order, Politics, Prosperity, Vote
Washington Post (June 17)
“Donald Trump must be the biggest liar in the history of American politics, and that’s saying something.” He “lies the way other people breathe.” There’s no “other political figure who so brazenly tells lie after lie, spraying audiences with such a fusillade of untruths that it is almost impossible to keep track.”
Barrons (November 10)
“Politics and religion may divide people, but everyone loves a good sale.” On Wednesday, Alibaba Holdings, the e-commerce giant, will start “its sixth annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. The 24-hour shopping-palooza, also known as Singles Day, generated $9.3 billion in sales last year, dramatically more than the $2.7 billion sold during America’s Cyber Monday. Analysts predict sales will set a new record this week.”
Tags: 11.11, Alibaba, Cyber Monday, E-commerce, Politics, Religion, Sale, Sales, Singles Day, U.S.
New York Times (September 27)
Big money politics is reaching new highs in the U.S. “Top-tier Republican donors will pay $1.34 million per couple for the privilege of being treated as party insiders, while the Democratic Party will charge about $1.6 million.” Make that lows. “More big money can only leave less hope for voters concerned that the richest donors are buying ever more influence over politicians, with favoritism and corruption an inevitable result.”
Tags: Big money, Corruption, Democrat, Donors, Favoritism, Influence, Insiders, Politics, Republican, U.S., Voters
The Guardian (September 9)
“Whatever your views of the monarchy, it is hard not to admire Elizabeth Windsor’s stamina. As of today, she has sat on the throne for longer than anybody in a line of predecessors…. Fast approaching her 90s, she continues to meet, speak and travel her way through an itinerary that owes a great deal more to duty than to whim.” And she maintains her demanding schedule without “putting a foot out of place.” Her “achievement has been to take the politics out of the monarchy.”
Tags: Achievement, Demanding schedule, Duty, Elizabeth II, Itinerary, Monarchy, Politics, Throne
Chicago Tribune (January 9)
“A fast-evolving yet underappreciated phenomenon in American life and politics” is being brought about by millennials who “are so smitten with mobile technology and its social and economic applications that they see tech as the solution to just about everything.” Their digital mindset is driving their politics to become increasingly libertarian. They are “very liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and legalized pot, yet very skeptical of government efforts to regulate the economy or levy taxes.”
Tags: Applications, Economy, Liberal, Libertarian, Life, Millennials, Mobile technology, Politics, Taxes, Tech, U.S.
Washington Post (December 3)
“In authoritarian politics, as in life, attitude is everything, or almost everything.” Vladimir Putin has demonstrated a relentless desire to hold onto power by any means necessary. “Those who hope that falling oil prices, or Western sanctions, or a combination of the two, will force a change of course in Moscow — much less a change of regime — must reckon with the fact that Putin has seen that scenario once already, in Gorbachev’s time. And he seems determined that the sequel, if any, will end differently.”
Tags: Attitude, Authoritarian, Gorbachev, Moscow, Oil prices, Politics, Power, Putin, Western sanctions
